Futuremark Trying to Trademark the Word "Pwnage" ?

[Jon]

 
Finnish software company Futuremark, developers of popular benchmarking software, has submitted a request to trademark the word "Pwnage." The application is at the US Trademark Office and is requesting to cover an extremely wide slice of the digital entertainment pie.

http://www.trademork.com/pwnage/

Known for its computer benchmarking software, Futuremark recently announced that it would become a video game developer as well. In late-January 2008, GameDaily reported that Futuremark Games Studio “has apparently already started development on its first game, but further details surrounding genre or platform(s) were not provided.” Mork wonders if “Pwnage” will be the name of Futuremark’s first video game, or if it will be a slogan attached to their overall gaming effort.

Mork wonders if Futuremark filing to trademark “pwnage” is similar to Fark trying to trademark “not safe for work”. “Pwn” and the words derived from it are widely-used and have gone beyond the gaming and hacker communities into pop-culture territory. Securing and protecting a word like this would be at worst, impossible, and an uphill battle at best.

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77405812

[juxmw]

pronunciation ?? .... and ... uhmmm ... what language is that

[Jon]

pronunciation ?? .... and ... uhmmm ... what language is that

lol..I'm gonna pretend you didn't just ask that 

[Staticnuts]

Why doesn't this surprise anyone? They are going to use the word for those whose scores are so low that their benchmarking software won't operate on their systems. Well...it's either that or for people with Macs.

Staticnuts